Artistic encounters in Knysna
Since the beginning of last year, the Southern African Foundation For Contemporary Art (Saffca) based on Entabeni Farm in Eastford, Knysna has held residency programmes.
According to Saffca curator and head of communications Ruzy Rusike, two artists in residence are usually working at Saffca’s space in Knysna at the same time. “The one artist is from the southern part of the African continent while the other one would come as often as possible from anywhere around the globe,” she said.
She said these double residencies facilitate true sociocultural and artistic encounters and three of them are held throughout the year. “The programme is already established up to the end of 2018 and is extremely well received by overseas artists,” she said.
Two resident artists
Saffca is currently hosting two Southern African artists, Minnette Vári and Chris Soal, in the residency. “This residency is a significant one as Vári is an established artist in Southern Africa and Soal having recently graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand,” said Rusike.
Minette Vári
The body of work by Vári, who was born in 1968, conflates history with the self, examining how identity arises out of a traumatic past. As Kendell Geers observed in a catalogue essay published in 2004 by Kunstmuseum Lucerne, “Minnette Vári has in her lifetime witnessed the fall of apartheid and all its structures, followed by the new democracy.”
In response to this history, Vári has written a history of herself in relation to this trajectory, one that attempts to recover what is lost, to give shape and voice to forgotten or erased memories. In her videos and drawings, Vári frequently depicts her own body enduring a disfiguring metamorphosis – she merges with and emerges from nature as well as from the concrete architecture of modern cities.
The female “protagonist” of her video works is sometimes archetypal and sometimes spectral, a persona who ingests and is ingested by time.
Chris Soal
Soal, born in 1994 and currently residing and practising in Johannesburg, is an emerging artist, said Rusike. “A fine arts graduate from Wits, Chris’ art explores ways of working with materials, and through thinking about space, light and form he has developed his own visual language.
“His artistic practice is that of a ‘bricoleur’ – an artist juxtaposing objects through collage – with a sensitivity to found material and the histories embedded within objects, with specific focus on their location within the city of Johannesburg and its sociopolitical, economic and geographic implications,” Rusike added.
Viewing opportunity
Art lovers will be able to experience both Vari and Soal on 29 April during an open studio session held at Entabeni Farm. Contact 082 614 3919 for more information.